Every day we wake up, breathe and hopefully say a prayer of thanks to be able to share another day on this glorious Earth. Every day, we have a chance to strive to be better than we were the day before and to work on ourselves in the pursuit of happiness. Every day.... most of us fail at one thing or another. Every day.... we all sin... in one way or another. There is no sin, that is worse than others. They aren't measured, weighed or put in order from bad to worse. We are all human. Last week, the head coach of Ole Miss football resigned over a mistake... a sin... he made. Yes, he quoted Bible verses. Yes, he was a Christian. Yes, he had a family. Yes... he tried to build people up. And yes... he was battling some internal demons apparently.... which led to his ultimate resignation. The reality is this man.... like many of us... made a mistake. The problem... his mistake was on a bigger stage... for the world to view and judge. As the news broke... I found myself pondering... the question.... what if your life was placed under a microscope for the world to see.... to judge your decisions... your mistakes.... how many people would stand beside you knowing your flaws? How many people would cast stones... without knowing the full details? No, I don't feel empathy for the coach... and I don't believe that the mistake he made should be without consequence, but the truth is.... there will be a judgement day and none of us will be the judge. So why are we so quick to do it now? Is it just the power of negativity to try and bring someone further down... when they've been hit? Is it because we felt a connection to this person and we feel disappointed by his behavior or finding out that he might actually be human? Or.... is is because we thought he was a Christian man, with high morals and we find out that he sins like all of us. I am certain that it's probably one, two or all of them. For me... I won't judge the behavior... and I won't condone it. He was wrong. He knows it and if the mistakes he made, cost him a job he appeared to love, then I am sure the consequences will be there regardless. At the end of the day.... God forgives those of us who ask for forgiveness.
I have been a life long Oxonian. I was born in this small town. I have lived here my entire life. My blood is red and blue. I've been with Ole Miss through good, bad and yes, ugly. I am not a fair weather fan. I get upset. I get mad. I get depressed. Those of us who have been around awhile know, that the road to Ole Miss is always filled with highs, lows and many in betweens. We have survived. We have been through a lot. We've watched our university make many changes. We may not always agree, but we've stood beside her every day. We've been through countless head football coaches, and we will survive this. We all wondered when Coach Freeze was hired, why? How could this man elevate our program and bring it to a new level. The reality is.... he did. He brought a lot to Ole Miss. He gave us some highs. He gave us some lows. At the end of every day, our visions of a national championship under the Freeze reign seemed like a reachable task at times. We were thrilled. Now... there are many who are eager to bury him... because he made a mistake. No... I am not condoning the mistake. It was huge. It was costly, but again... it is not my place to judge his sin. What I can do... is pray for him, his family, our university, our football team and know that regardless of this low.... we will survive and we will rise again.
Our interim coach is a good person. He's an Ole Miss alum. He bleeds red and blue. His son played baseball with my grandson and they are a good family. He needs our support. He needs our faith that he can bring this team and our fans through a turbelant time. It's not the first time, and it won't be the last.
I pray that when I make mistakes that I will have friends there to pick me up. I will have friends who won't judge me, but will be there when I need them. I pray that my sins are not placed on a national stage to be played out in front of thousands of people. Every day.... we all sin. We are not perfect. We wake up and we try to be better than we were the day before, but we are far from perfect. Think twice before you cast your stone.... Your own garden is probably full of them.
We are Ole Miss. We bleed red and blue. We will survive.
